Prologue

         The dangerous breeze ran races through my hair. The screeching of the hawks rung in my ears. My heart beat faster than the sound of the gushing stream father up the forest.

          Autumn leaves crunched under my feet. I knew he was far but the thought that he was after me made me run faster. The cries of the child in my arms, the cries of my child in my arms encouraged me.

           Her tears acted as fuel for my tiring but busy legs. I would have liked to keep her and hold her in arms forever but not with the King around. The other maids were foolish enough to give him their child, the child which he conceived. As a result of their ignorance and stupidity, the King has enough children to form an army. The King's Descendants make up 45% of Pariorizo. I, Avalon Thaddeus, was not as stupid.

        For years rumors went around that one maid had a daughter and she mindlessly gave her to the King. Some said Haynos killed the child, because he only wanted male children. 

         As much rumors go around, I know that tale's not true, because that supposed girl was my older sister. The truth was that the King tried to have child with her, but she had already eaten the infertility fruit. She ran away from the kingdom, and created a home the opposite side of the kingdom, separated by a huge lake, Lake Neazoí.

           She could have killed herself, but that would have meant leaving me alone forever, so she made a new life across the lake.

        Haynos had a queen, still has, and only has two sons with her.  King Haynos thought that he could keep me tied up, but I will prevail, and save my sister and I's kind. My daughter's golden-gray eyes looked at me with hope. Her heartbeat multiplied by the minute, with every step, I grew stronger .

        The trees towered over me, making a complete night of day.  The sound of the stream grew louder. I was ready for my death, but not my daughter's. I was determined to save her. 

        The sound of the King's feet gained on me. Soon he found me. I was trapped, the lake brought me to a halt. I had reached the end of the kingdom, that kingdom in fact. A smaller kingdom lay on the other side. My sister was over there. I could escape too, but the King's eyes peered through my inner being. His tobacco-scented breath infuriated my nose. He was not killing my child.

         "Nowhere to go, my love," he said extending his hands to touch my daughter. I turned my body, and showed him my back. I looked at my surroundings, looking for any means of escape. You can't keep her away from me," he said, stepping closer to me. "She's my child I have the right to at least see her face." I needed to get away. He passed his thumb down the back of my ear, and crushed himself into my back. 

           I sniffled and swatted his disgusting hands off of me."Even with  an army  of children, you still have the audicity to want more," I said with an unpersuasive giggle.

            "You spend your days roaming through your own halls seeking for any means of pleasure. 

          " You don't care for your queen. You convince her that the only reason you do it is for the betterment of the kingdom. You make her believe that you want to pass on your genes so that the world becomes a better place. You small-minded man, you think that the world revolves around you!" 

"All that you've just said is very true, I know all those things, there is no need for you to tell me things I already know," he says with a blank face and I feel stupid.

"I see you think that just because your sister got away so easily that you are entitled to that same opportunity. No, the only reason she is not here, in this kingdom today is because, she was smart. You are nothing but a useless and dumb excuse for a woman. If you were smart, you would have followed in your sister's footsteps, much earlier.

 "But, I can't really blame you, you were only a child then, well she too. How old was she again? Yes, just sixteen years. You had seven years to run away, to do the same thing she did, but, you didn't."

Anger raced within me, he had haunted me with the thought that my sister was only sixteen when he did her that inhumane disgrace, for seven years. He has had a great fondness for my sister and me since the day my parents arrived in his kingdom. We were not normal human beings, we were special.

"What makes you think that I am going to give you my child?" I say cocking my head to the side. "You mean our child?" he said smiling sickly. I looked at him with a blank expression on my face. 

"Well as you know I have an army of children…so why not have a change, it won't hurt to have a woman solider," he said. "Yeah…no, God knows what you will do with a young girl under your responsibility," I said stepping back a little. 

A cold, long breeze passed through the air and hit me across my face. I turned my head to the side, away from the way of the wind.  For a split second I swore I glimpsed one of the marketing baskets the farmers used to collect produce. I looked at Haynos and saw that his attention is no longer on me, but on something across the lake. I pretended to look back at what he's looking at, but I really looked back to see if the market basket was still there. It was. I cautiously used my foot and pulled the basket toward me and kissed my daughter goodbye. 

I slowly placed her in the basket and turned to the lake that was only a few inches behind me. "What the hell are you doing!" I heard his voice and quickly let the basket onto the water. The waters pushed the basket away from me and slowly carried it across the lake. I didn't have time to smile at my accomplishment before I felt a rough hand wrap around my neck. 

My breath hitched and my chest tightened. "You think this is funny?" Haynos asked me roughly. I tried answering but my throat was burning and his grip tightened around my neck.  Tears sprung out my eyes and I refused to fight back because I knew that it would only cause him to hit me. I closed my eyes and bit my lips at the pain that stretched from my head straight down to my toes. I couldn't even swallow my own saliva so with much effort I spat on Haynos' face. 

That action only supplied me with a slap to my face, which I had expected. I fought for breath but it didn't come…but what came was the feeling of cold water covering my body.

Haynos had thrown me into the lake, but his hand was still around my neck. The slightly sweet taste of the lake's water entered my mouth and made its quick descent into my lungs. For a second I managed to find the surface and gasped for air. Before I went back under I heard only one thing, one thing among all the rude comments Haynos was throwing at me and that one thing was the faint crying voice of my daughter. After a while I gave up trying to be released and let fate do the rest.

Before I knew it, a strange warmth had spread across my chest, I figured that it was the warm embrace of death himself and I closed my eyes for the last time because I refused to look up and see my killer. 

I closed my eyes and the last image I saw before my heart stopped pumping, before my lungs gave up, before my brain fell asleep forever and before my soul went into oblivion, was that of my beautiful daughter, Rhodanthe-Mozelle Thaddeus , she was still in her basket, but she wasn't crying anymore, she was smiling and laughing. On her face was an emotion that I never wore. An emotion that I hoped she wore and felt forever and that was happiness.